Dagmar, I understand tired! The things I tell myself I will do in the evening somehow never get done.

Bill, the garden tour sounds fabulous! I did a couple of virtual garden tours hosted by the California Native Plant Society. Not even close to a real tour, but it motivates me to continue building my own native plant garden which might even be part of a tour in, say, 10 years

Bill and Alice Glad to hear you both enjoy gardening and looking at other people's gardens. I have a big backyard with a bunch of stuff in flower beds but I am totally hit and miss re any plan or structure. I did plant "bee and butterfly friendly" plants out in front of the house after the dead tree and lawn were removed. The bees and butterflies do come. I have never gone on the local garden tour here but I do enjoy looking at all the wonderful plantings in both large parks that I visit daily while with the dogs. The dogs stay on leash of course. Always nice to be able to walk among flowers and plants.

Dagmar

Almost under 140 lbs. again :

Dagmar

Good for you, Dagmar!
I lost another pound to go with the pandemic 6.
I also finally bought a new swimsuit that fits and that I like, and have been swimming twice now. Swimming relaxes me more than any other activity. It doesn't hurt that our community has a hot tub/Jacuzzi as well as the swimming pool.

JayEll Glad you found a swimsuit and are swimming. Great exercise.

Dagmar

Weird weather everywhere. We had big thunderstorms today with a lot of lightning and a few spells of heavy rain. Not typical for June here. Next we'll get some more typical days of 100+ (38c+) days.

My new right knee is doing great, but my left foot is getting wonky. I had a foot MRI yesterday, results in a week. The doctor said based on xray and ultrasound it might be Posterior Tibial Tendon Dysfunction. It's not bad during the day but it zings me at night and it's keeping me awake. It's always something

Everything else is good, though, so I'll just hope for the best and keep on keepin' on, as the saying goes.

Good going with the swimming, JayEll. Wish I had something like that close to me.

Alice I hope the problem with your foot is something not too serious. Overall I'm finding aging to be not much fun. Things never seem to heal completely any more.

I worked all day in big heat and humidity yesterday and drank too much ice tea to keep going. Ate a bunch of crap in the evening when I was crashing and didn't sleep well. I knew that was going to happen but I did it anyway. SIGH.

Caffeine is pretty much the only "vice" I have left. I'm going to have to come up with something else to try to get through the late afternoon walk though or my shorts will never fit! I think I'm going to try a different protein snack than the protein bars I've been eating- probably a boiled egg.

The maintenance/diet/maintenance regime is for life. Can't lose sight of that though it's hard to wrap my mind around it sometimes

Dagmar

Hang in there, Dagmar. Maintenance for life doesn't mean no treats for life. It's all a balancing act as I'm sure I don't need to tell you . Over the years my attitude towards food has really changed. 15 years ago I couldn't imagine ever being able to give up McDonald's bacon egg and cheese biscuits on my hiking days. Now the thought of such food is totally unappealing. But I do eat Starbucks Egg White Bites, which I wrap in a low-carb, high fiber tortilla. I still love chocolate, which I eat periodically. Dark chocolate covered almonds are actually nutritious.. But I always weigh and log it so I don't exceed my calorie budget. I like sweet carbs with my black coffee in the morning but try to keep it under 350 calories. I also love ice cream but somehow don't feel deprived when I haven't eaten it for years. It was harder when I was shopping for my elderly neighbor John, who wanted a couple of tubs of ice cream each week. But he has finally moved!

I will find out the results of my foot MRI on Tuesday. Last night I figured out a position for my foot that allowed my to fall asleep, which was quite a relief. Very hot here, but low humidity, at least for a couple of days.

Alice glad you found a position for your foot that allows you to sleep.

Re treats - I have "dessert" every night. In warmer months it's 10 small chunks of melon or other seasonal fruit and an individual vanilla yogurt cup which I share with the cat and dog. This dog also likes melon so I gave her some tiny pieces of mine. On the weekend I indulge and have a ice cream bar - still shared - instead of the yogurt. I do pretty well in the warmer months.

It's in the winter that I fall down. Usually I have to drink more caffeine during the day to keep going and the evening crash is more pronounced. I wish they had individual portions of cookies you could buy. I get a package and say I'll only have a serving. Does not happen. I think this winter I may try toaster waffles. I like those with nothing on them and I have to make them downstairs (instead of secretly eating them in bed like I do the cookies ) so there is more portion control.

Dagmar

Happy Dominion Day, Dagmar. Fun to be reminded that today celebrates that day in 1867 when several confederations and Maritimes joined the Dominion of Canada. May you survive as a country for a thousand years. And a thousand after that.

(Yes, I do understand that some of the younger folk call it Canada Day. But I've recently been reading about how tenuous was our country's revolutionary war separating us British colonists from Britain and am reminded to appreciate how smoothly you British pulled it off north of the border.)

Thank you Bill. I hope you enjoy your Independence Day celebrations on the 4th of July. May your country survive all the current turmoil and continue without another revolution being necessary.

Dagmar

Alice, where did your elderly neighbor John move to? And what happened with the dogs? Just curious.

Everyone stay safe!

JayEll, my neighbor John FINALLY moved, about 3 weeks ago. The previous property owner, who had no success evicting him, put $5000 in escrow when she sold to the new owner last December, for the purpose of getting John off the property. The new owner used the money to move two truckloads of John's stuff to his new apartment in a bigger town about 40 miles away, move one truckload of stuff into storage, and pay one year of storage. John still complained mightily about the huge amount of belongings he could not move, which will be thrown away. This includes an old junk motorhome and over 100 boxes of miscellanous junk. John hasn't texted me since the move, so I'm assuming he is busy telling all his stories to new neighbors.

It will irk me to the end of my days that the previous owner never charged John a dime to live there for over three years, yet she ended up paying thousands to get rid of him. A good lesson to learn!

There was only one dog remaining right before John moved. The two old ones died quite a while ago, and the two younger females were rescued in April 2021 by a wonderful soul from Idaho, who has completely rehabilitated them! The one remaining male was basically feral. John could no longer catch him or touch him. A greyhound rescue organization came and managed to get him into a crate for transport. I received a photo of him, still very scared, but in clean comfortable surroundings. He's about 9 so I'm not sure what they will eventually do with him. Too bad John couldn't part with him several years earlier.
So, that chapter of my life is finally closed . Thanks for asking!

Oh gosh, Alice. What a sad and irritating story! People who think landlords are just sitting back and raking in money don't think about what happens when things go sideways like this.

My parents had a rental house condemned by the local board of health because the family living there had dismantled the plumbing, among other things. That house was never rented again because the cost of fixing it was so high. It was demolished when we sold the property.

On the other side, I had a friend whose lease was terminated, but he refused to move. The owners brought eviction proceedings. They paid my friend something like $11,000 to move in 1 year, which he took. That would be about $22,000 today. He still didn't move, and so on the day he was supposed to be out, the sheriffs came and moved him and all his belongings to the curb. My friend was in shock--he had been in denial that this could actually happen.

I'm glad that you no longer have to deal with John and that the dogs were all taken care of, one way or another. I hope John does OK in his new place.

Thanks for the update about your neighbor John, Alice. That's quite a story.

The story you tell, JayEll, is the kind I fear with my rental property. In Massachusetts the laws are highly favorable for renters. It's easy to lose six months rent even if no damage is done. There is a small band of renters who move from one rental situation to another living on those free six-month stints of waiting to be evicted.